After a Decade, SAC Capital Blinks; The Justice Department’s deal with SAC Capital caps an investigation that turned a mighty hedge fund into a symbol of financial wrongdoing

NOVEMBER 4, 2013, 8:54 PM

After a Decade, SAC Capital Blinks

By BEN PROTESS and PETER LATTMAN

SAC Capital first sought to fend off a federal indictment. Then the hedge fund, run by the billionaire Steven A. Cohen, offered to pay about $700 million to settle. Finally, SAC suggested it plead guilty to only some of the criminal charges in the five-count indictment. But at every turn, the government refused. And so on Monday, SAC agreed to plead guilty to all five counts of insider trading violations and pay a record $1.2 billion penalty, becoming the first large Wall Street firm in a generation to confess to criminal conduct. The deal caps a decade-long investigation that has turned a mighty hedge fund into a symbol of financial wrongdoing. Read more of this post

The Chinese are anxious over the future; The deep-seated concern about the next stages of growth

The Chinese are anxious over the future

By Fred Hiatt, Monday, November 4, 9:05 AM

BEIJING

Traveling here last week after America’s partial government shutdown and near-default, I expected to encounter a surge of confidence in China’s inevitable, eventual emergence as the world’s greatest power. That is not what I found. Some people here do take pleasure in the travails of democracy in the world’s greatest hectorer on the subject. Some shed crocodile tears about America’s decline and President Obama’s failure to attend a recent summit in Asia. Read more of this post

New warning on overcapacity in China; Banks told not to lend to projects in five sectors

New warning on overcapacity

Updated: 2013-11-05 00:17

By Zheng Yangpeng (China Daily) Read more of this post

Less sin, more Shrek in Macau as China takes aim in corruption fight

Less sin, more Shrek in Macau as China takes aim in corruption fight

Monday, November 4, 2013 – 09:10

Reuters

MACAU – The media scrum surrounding the politically connected chairman of a Chinese financial services company was interested in one particular unpaid loan. The amount – US$1.3 million (S$1.62 million) – was nothing extraordinary. But the story behind it was. Xie Xiaoqing, chairman of Rongzhong Group, was sued in January for failing to repay the money to Sands China Ltd, US billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s Macau gambling unit. Read more of this post

How China became the biggest boy in the playground

How China became the biggest boy in the playground

Tuesday, November 5, 2013 – 05:00

Peh Shing Huei

The Straits Times

After five emperors, two regime changes and millions of lives lost in a century, China has completed almost two-thirds of its great revival. To be precise, the job is 62 per cent done. Chinese economist Yang Yiyong has it down pat. “If you can grade beauty in a pageant and measure emotional intelligence, I don’t see why you can’t count a nation’s revival,” he said, grinning. Read more of this post

Home ownership an unobtainable dream in China

Home ownership an unobtainable dream in China

CNN
November 5, 2013, 12:20 am TWN

CNN–Cui Shufeng is a retired government worker in Beijing. She is one of the lucky homeowners who bought her place long before the housing sector galloped out of reach for the average Chinese salary worker. “It is ridiculously high,” she says pointing to apartments in her neighborhood. “These homes near the school here are CNY 70,000 (US$11,400) per square meter. It’s not even worth CNY 7000 (US$ 1140) per square meter because it’s not even good quality.” Read more of this post

China’s Tesla Risks Overcharging

China’s Tesla Risks Overcharging

ABHEEK BHATTACHARYA

Updated Nov. 3, 2013 11:06 p.m. ET

Tesla Motors TSLA +8.03% isn’t the only stock exciting investors about the future of electric cars. Chinese electric-car maker BYD 1211.HK -0.39% —backed by a major investment from Warren Buffett —has seen its Hong Kong-listed shares soar 153% in the past year, even as Chinese auto stocks are up 66%. This charge could be set to power down. Read more of this post

China plans to prove the sceptics wrong; It is unclear whether a system that is geared to growth can also provide clean air and water

November 4, 2013 7:00 pm

China plans to prove the sceptics wrong

By Gideon Rachman

It is unclear whether a system that is geared to growth can also provide clean air and water

Foreign commentators and local bloggers regularly predict that China is heading for an economic and political crisis. But the country’s leaders are in strikingly confident mood. They believe that China can keep growing at more than 7 per cent a year for at least another decade. That would mean the country’s economy – already the second-largest in the world – would double in size. And, depending on the assumptions you make about US growth and exchange rates, it would probably mean that China becomes the world’s largest economy by 2020. Read more of this post

China’s manufacturers feel the squeeze as costs rise

November 4, 2013 8:15 am

China’s manufacturers feel the squeeze as costs rise

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Guangzhou

Perched in front of hundreds of vibrantly coloured backpacks, each bearing the name of a famous football nation, a middle-aged woman from Fujian province worries about the squeeze on her wafer-thin margins. Just before lunch on the opening day of the third phase of the Canton Fair – a huge trade show held in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province – Ms Lin has secured no orders. Read more of this post

China: Red restoration; Foreign companies are looking for signs that tough tactics are no more than short-term political moves

November 4, 2013 7:21 pm

China: Red restoration

By Jamil Anderlini

Foreign companies are looking for signs that tough tactics are no more than short-term political moves

In the tranquil surroundings of the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing two weeks ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping was almost effusive as he welcomed an all-star group of global capitalists. “Many of you are renowned entrepreneurs and business leaders in the world today and you all have profound insight into the global economy,” Mr Xi told the likes of Mike Duke, Walmart CEO, Indra Nooyi, the head of PepsiCo, Muhtar Kent, Coca-Colachairman, David Rubenstein, Carlyle Group founder, and Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, the former AIG boss. “Your suggestions are a very important source of inspiration for the Chinese government.” Read more of this post

Big Brother blinded: Security fears in China as smog disrupts surveillance cameras

Big Brother blinded: Security fears in China as smog disrupts surveillance cameras

Tuesday, 05 November, 2013, 2:36am

Stephen Chen binglin.chen@scmp.com

Teams of scientists assigned to find a solution as heavy pollution makes national surveillance network useless, raising fear of terror attack

To the central government, the smog that blankets the country is not just a health hazard, it’s a threat to national security. Last month visibility in Harbin dropped to below three metres because of heavy smog. On days like these, no surveillance camera can see through the thick layers of particles, say scientists and engineers. Read more of this post

Fall of Brazil’s Batista embarrasses President Dilma Rousseff; Politicians sure to cringe at close links to failed entrepreneur

November 4, 2013 1:37 pm

Fall of Brazil’s Batista embarrasses President Dilma Rousseff

By Joe Leahy in São Paulo

Politicians sure to cringe at close links to failed entrepreneur

There must be moments in every politician’s career that make them cringe when recalling later on. For Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff one of these is probably the day in April last year when she helped failed entrepreneur Eike Batista commemorate the “first oil” from what are now his failed fields off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Read more of this post

Diageo Woos Africa With Johnnie Walker One Shot at a Time

Diageo Woos Africa With Johnnie Walker One Shot at a Time

In Africa, where most spirits are what the industry calls “unbranded” — meaning “homemade” — Diageo Plc (DGE) is betting smaller bottles can persuade more drinkers to sample its well-known labels instead. Diageo, the maker of Smirnoff vodka, Johnnie Walker whisky, and scores of other liquor brands, has introduced 20-centiliter containers — a bit less than a third the size of a normal bottle of spirits — in sub-Saharan Africa. The approach provides a cheaper way for friends to share one of Diageo’s global brands instead of choosing a local tipple or a beer. Read more of this post